1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a vehicle-surrounding image display apparatus and a vehicle-surrounding image display method, and more specifically to an apparatus for displaying an image of a side of a vehicle as seen forward or rearward from a side mirror along with a top view image of the vehicle as seen from a virtual viewpoint above.
2. Description of the Related Art
There has been proposed a technology of generating an image of the vehicle as seen from the virtual viewpoint above the vehicle (hereinafter referred to as a top view image) by providing a plurality of cameras in four directions of the vehicle and performing a viewpoint conversion processing on images of a periphery of the vehicle shot by the plurality of cameras, and displaying the top view image on a display unit such as a display (see, for example, Japanese Patent No. 3300334).
There has also been proposed another technology of generating an image of an area forward of the side mirror on a side of the vehicle (hereinafter referred to as a forward side view image) and an image of an area rearward of the side mirror on the side of the vehicle as reflected by the mirror (hereinafter referred to as a rearward mirror view image) by disposing left and right cameras of the vehicle at the side mirrors and performing another viewpoint conversion processing on images of the periphery of the vehicle shot by the cameras disposed to the side mirrors. In this technology, the forward side view image and the rearward mirror view image are displayed on the display unit along with the top view image.
According to the technology of generating and displaying the top view image, forward side view image, and the rearward mirror view image (hereinafter, collectively referred to as the vehicle-surrounding image), a driver checks the vehicle-surrounding image displayed on the display unit of the vehicle, thereby comprehending a positional relation between the vehicle and an obstacle in the periphery and driving so as to avoid a collision between the vehicle and the obstacle.
Since the top view image covers an area of the whole vehicle and its periphery as seen from above the vehicle, the positional relation between the vehicle and its periphery can be recognized at a glance. However, it is disadvantageously difficult to intuitively recognize in which direction the forward side view image and the rearward mirror view image (hereinafter, these two will be collectively referred to as the vehicle side image) are shot.
That is, although there are two each (forward and rearward) of the vehicle side images on the left and right sides, each image shows only a part (side portion) of the vehicle. Since the vehicle has a symmetric structure, the parts of the vehicle shown in the left and right vehicle side images are quite similar and they are difficult to be distinguished from each other. Furthermore, since the rearward mirror view image is a mirror-reversed image as reflected by the mirror, the left and right rearward mirror view images are easily mixed. Therefore, it is disadvantageously difficult to intuitively recognize in which direction the image is shot.
The present invention has been made to solve these problems, and it is an object of the present invention to make it easier to intuitively recognize in which direction the vehicle side image displayed along with the top view image is shot.